Sporting Clube de Goa defeated Air India by a scoreline of 2-0 in an I-League encounter at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune on Thursday.

It was Anthony D’Souza’s brace that proved to be the difference between the two sides in the end, as the midfielder found the back of the net in the 75th minute as well as in injury time, to ensure his team took home the three points.

The match though had started on a far more positive note for Air India, who with the away side adopting a cautious approach to the game, dominated the proceedings in the first half but failed to convert their chances.

The Airmen’s two best chances fell to Manandeep Singh and Manjit Singh. Manandeep first came close to giving his side the lead when his attempt from a freekick 30 yards away from the goal was just inches away from creeping into the back of the net, while Manjit Singh almost got his head to a brilliant freekick floated in by Royston Dsouza soon after.

With Santosh Kashyap’s side failing to capitalize on their chances, the first half ended with the scoreline still 0-0.

And the home side were punished in the second half by a clinical performance by the Flaming Oranje, as James Moga proved to be quite a handful for Air India’s defense to deal with.

Eventually a good passage of play involving the South Sudanese striker and Mackroy Peixote as well as Dawson Fernandes helped split open the Airmen’s defense and D’Souza pounced on the opening, finding the back of the net to put his side ahead.

With the hosts looking for an equalizer, the away side finally put the game to bed in injury time when D’Souza doubled his and Sporting’s tally for the day.

With this win the Flaming Oranje move to 37 points from 23 matches while Air India stay on 28 points from 23 matches.